End of Project

Hello,

This marks the end of this project. 
It was done for a journalism course.
There will be no further updates made on this blog.

Thank you for reading.

One quarter of Canadians have no faith in Aboriginal people

APTN reports that the Canadian Race Relations Foundation found in a survey that one quarter of Canadians have low to no faith in Aboriginal people.

"It examined the perception Canadians have toward Aboriginal people, especially since the Idle No More movement sparked in December." APTN

Wab Kinew at TRU's Storytellers Gala

Aboriginal journalist, musician and director of Indigenous Inclusion of Aboriginals at the University of Winnipeg, Wab Kinew spoke at the Storytellers Gala hosted by Thompson Rivers University's Aboriginal Collective March 14, 2013.

Courtney Dickson, roving editor at The Omega, TRUs independent student newspaper wrote about Wab Kinew's presentation in her article posted in theomega.ca.

Is Interest in Idle No More Dwindling

Idle no more originally started to protest omnibus bills C-38 and C-45 has changed to include a number of Aboriginal centric issues.  Including opposition to bill C-27 First Nations Transparency Act, First Nations Education Reform and Mi'kmaq Framework Agreements. They have also posted the Ally Bill of Responsibilities by Dr. Lynn Gehl on their official website that in part asserts that the needs of the supporters of Indigenous people are secondary and must take a backseat to Indigenous people.

As Idle no more shifts away from its original focus and issues statements filled with political rhetoric, traffic to its website has seen a steady decline.

A search on Alexa.com an Internet traffic monitoring site shows that Idle no more's official website has seen a large decrease in traffic.

Daily global Internet users has decreased by -69.77% in the last month from its three month high of +4000% which equals 0.00037% of Internet users to 0.00017% this month. (statistical data from March 14, 2013, refer to Alexa.com for current stats)

This equals a traffic rank of 794,177 which is a rank lower than the previous 402,344.  Indicating a significant drop in visitors to their website.

The decline of Idle no more was acknowledged by Phil Fontaine a former Chief of the Assembly of First Nations at a talk at the University of Winnipeg and reported in an article by the CBC where he suggests that Idle no more must change their direction to restart their movement.

Krystalline Krause in her article Activist Communique: Idle No More still breathing. March 5, 2013. from Rabble.ca said right wing media has declared Idle no more dead however the movement is still alive. March 20 to 22, 2013 have been declared as Global Days of Action for Idle no more.

However, with the change in focus and media wrangling it appears that the environment has been forgotten.  Federal changes to environmental laws have not changed.  The issues surrounding the omnibus bills have not gone away.  But, people's interest and it appears the interest of Idle no more have moved on to other things.

Perhaps March will see a grassroots movement return to its own roots.

Solidarity with Mi'kmaq, "1 in 4 inmates in federal penitentiaries today are of Aboriginal ancestry" and Sharon McIvor speaks at TRU.

Idle No More releases a statement declaring solidarity with Mi'kmaq First Nations protesters Shelley Young and Jean Sock who have been on hunger strike since March 1, 2013 in opposition to Framework Agreements between Mi'kmaq Chiefs and the Federal Government that will abolish Treaty rights.
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The Office of the Correctional Investigator tables its report on Aboriginal people and their relationship with the Justice and Correctional system and titled, Spirit Matters: Aboriginal People and the Corrections and Conditional Release Act.

“Close to one-in-four inmates in federal penitentiaries today are of Aboriginal ancestry," said the Correctional Investigator, Mr. Howard Sapers. 

The report found.

Today, 21% of the federal inmate population claims Aboriginal ancestry. The gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal offenders continues to widen on nearly every indicator of correctional performance:

• Aboriginal offenders serve disproportionately more of their sentence behind bars before first release.
• Aboriginal offenders are under-represented in community supervision populations and over-represented in maximum security institutions.
• Aboriginal offenders are more likely to return to prison on revocation of parole.
• Aboriginal offenders are disproportionately involved in institutional security incidents, use of force interventions, segregation placements and self-injurious behaviour.

From Executive Summary section xiii. 
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Sharon McIvor a lawyer from Merrit, BC talks at Thompson Rivers University about Historical and Current Perspectives on the Status of First Nations Women at the Arts and Education building to a audience of about 30 people.

Topics discussed:

'82 Canadian Constitution and Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
'89 McIvor v Canada - regarding the Indian Act and Aboriginal women losing status until '85.
Bill -C-3 Gender equity in Indian Registration Act
Matrimonial property on Reserves.
McIvor's role with Federal Correction services and the Task Force on Federally Sentenced Women.
Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women and the relationship between Aboriginal Women and the Police. 

 

AANDC asks for consultation on First Nations Education Reform

Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada has put an online survey on their website in an effort to fulfill their promise to consult with people on improving First Nations Education.

The survey is open to everyone First Nations and other Canadians alike and takes about ten minutes to complete.

AANDC has included an option for people to submit their own ideas by mail or e-mail.

This consultation process is to be held between December 2012 and April 2013.

Idle No More at Aberdeen Mall

“The crowd isn’t important, the building isn’t important what is important is that the Earth has rights.” said Nicole Cahoose a university student and one of the organizers for Idle No More.

A small group had begun to gather around the fireplace set beside the escalators at Aberdeen Mall.  A middle aged native man wearing a green camouflage jacket was tuning his drum.  He did this by lightly tapping the drum skin looking for the spot that would elicit the sound he wanted.  The drum measured about two feet in diameter, had a wooden frame with raw hide tightly stretched over it and all pulled together in the back by leather thongs which formed the hand grip.  

He laughed as he spoke to the women beside him. They all smiled as they spoke to one another.  Occasionally one would look up towards the gathering crowd as if looking for someone they knew. 

“As long as one or two people get interested or change the way they think then it is a success.” said Jolene Michel an arts student from TRU and organizer for Idle No More.

An old woman wearing a white headband began to speak; it wasn’t clear what she was saying.  Her words lost to the ambient noise of the mall and the open space above them.  She lifted a sign with the words idle no more written at the bottom and the picture of a native woman in traditional dress above.  The picture looked like a head with an eagle feather on top and the feather was the woman.

A young native woman stepped forward and spoke into a megaphone but she was as indecipherable as the old woman’s had been.  The young woman was Nicole Cahoose a student from the university and one of the women who organized the event. 

Shoppers in the mall slowly started taking notice of the thirty Native people gathered around the fireplace.  Several, thought it was a musical group and stopping for a few minutes to listen and then moved on when the group paused to speak about their cause.   A group of teens walked through the crowd closest to the group talking loudly about why people were making a big deal of this and walked on.  Some stayed and listened.

Between the songs individuals stepped forward from the group to address the crowd.  A young man wearing a blue shirt who was one of the drummers spoke.  He said that Idle No More wasn’t about getting more money from the government or more land it is about ensuring their children have a place to live in the future. 

     

“These people here today are the only people standing between you and complete destruction of the earth.” said Michelle Good a local lawyer and organizer of Idle No More.  We have a right to a clean environment and a right to a way of life.  As Good’s speech became more politically charged people who had gathered to watch began to wander away.  

After an hour the group packed up and the crowds dispersed.  Saturday shoppers returned to their business as though nothing had happened here but perhaps some will carry the sound of drums and the song of idle no more with them.